Which to use
“voice” and “vole” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #918
- “voice” frequency rank
- #45,158
- “vole” frequency rank
- 46076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | voice | vole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sound uttered by the mouth, especially by human beings in speech or song; sound thus uttered considered as possessing some special quality or character. | Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the tribes Arvicolini, Ellobiusini, Clethrionomyini, Pliomyini, Phenacomyini and Prometheomyini. |
Where the eye mixes voice and vole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. voice runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against vole's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: voice vs vole
A purely visual mix-up. voice (/vɔɪs/) and vole (/vəʊl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
voice is recorded at frequency rank #918, classified as anoun, pronounced /vɔɪs/. vole is at rank #45,158, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vəʊl/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 46076, this pair ranks #215,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of voice vs vole
Shared letters: eov. Private to "voice": ci. Private to "vole": l.
"voice" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "vole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "voice" and "vole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "voice" vs "vole" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "voice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #215,220 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "voice" and "vole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vel vs vole". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #215,220 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.